Doug Barry

The powers that be in Iran have turned to an unlikely ally to help them buttress the country's falling marriage rate — the internet, a disembodied feline entity that is try to take over the world one cat video at a time which the censor-prone Iranian rulers have been more than happy to restrict over the last several years. According to The Guardian, despite the fact that Iran has widespread online censorship and restrictions on social networking and dating sites, sports and youth minister, Mohammad Abbasi has announced that spouse-triangulating websites might be fair game

Abbasi told reporters on Tuesday that the government is especially worried about the latest marriage trends in Iran, including the fact that people in certain parts of the country are marrying and divorcing later. "To tackle this problem," he explained, "we have to find new ways and use all our opportunities to promote a long-lasting and easy marriage." Enter the internet, which makes everything, even Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's quixotic goal to boost Iran's population (currently at just a hair under 75 million) to 200 million, at least seem way easier.

Back in January, Iran tried to bring the hammer down on the internet, imposing new card-checking rules on cybercafes and preparing to launch its very own national internet. More than five million websites are filtered in Iran, but a lot of Iranians have been able to circumvent government restrictions, since more than 17 million Iranians have Facebook accounts and Facebook is most definitely on the government's shit-list.